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CONVENTION AND TOURIST BUREAU 

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COPYRIGHT, 1914, WM. ALLEN. MANAttR 






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New Orleans Sky Li 



O U T H W A R D the course of American commercial, 
■^^ industrial and agricultural progress is rapidly and 
ij ,f surely wending its way. New Orleans, because of 
'";; its geographical position, thus becomes the logical 
heart and center of this new Southland, whose 
magnitude of prosperity no one can foresee, yet it 
takes no veiled vision of the prophet to predict 
that the little hamlet founded on the banks of the 
Mississippi, by Bienville, the intrepid and farseeing 
French soldier of Fortune and explorer of 171S, is 
within a few years to become, in wealth, commerce 
and size, one of the first great cities of the Western Hemisphere. 

New Orleans of to-day is a city of 400,000 population, lying 110 miles from the 
mouth of the Mississippi, and occupies an area of 196 j square miles. It already 
ranks as second port in the United States in combined exports and imports, yet it bids 
fair with the opening of the Panama Canal to rank first. For New Orleans stands 
practically on the very threshold of this stupendous monument to the skill, ingenuity 
and perseverance of the American engineers — The Canal — through which the passage 
of the first self-propelling vessel from ocean to ocean was effected on the morning 
of January 7, 1914, being hundreds of miles nearer to it than any other practicable 
American port. 




Continuati 



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JUL 2U 



'oi. A.'} 772 7 9 







wing Crescent Bend 



New Orleans is the gateway, not only to this great waterway, which is soon to 
revolutionize the commerce of the world, but the gateway to all South American 
commercial opportunities of which so much is expected. 

No description of New Orleans is complete without reference to its being a city 
of social brilliance, the home of the world-famous Mardi Gras, and a veritable land 
of romance. The city is replete with evidences of the old French and Spanish 
civilization and ante-bellum days, fascinatingly blended with the charming features 
of southern life. Yet, withal, it is a busy, modern city, teeming with industrial and 
commercial progress that offers a bewildering and wide panorama of material things. 
It is the greatest factory city of the South, the value of manufactured products exceeding 
$125,000,000, annually. 

Broadly speaking, the external features that make New Orleans delightful to 
the visitor are the genial, semi-tropical winter climate; its semi-public social functions 
as epitomized in the balls of the carnival season and the F"rench Opera; its beautiful 
residential district, and its la\ish, natural floral and scenic beauties. 

New Orleans is one of the healthiest cities in the country, borne out by statistics 
which show that the average resident white death rate is less than fifteen per thousand. 
With many beautiful parks as breathing spots, and being practically surrounded by 
large bodies of water, New Orleans is not only healthier, but, in actual fact, much 
cooler in summertime than most cities of the North. The breezes from these bodies 
of water are constant, and particularly at night they are cool and refreshing. 




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Old Spanish Cabildo 




Cloister Alley 





TURNING BACK THE PAGE OF TIME 



Jackson Square, five minutes' walk from Canal 
Street, is geographically the central point, and, 
chronologically, the beginning in a sketch of historic 
New Orleans. The stranger should walk down Royal 

Street (Rue Royal, in Colonial Days) to Orleans 

Street, which comes into the rear of the cathedral, 
thence through St. Anthony's Alley to Jackson Square, formerly Place d'Armes. 

New Orleans, the provincial capital of Louisiana, was laid out in 1718 by Bienville, 
and this spot was the site of the first settlement on the lower Mississippi River. The 
"Vieux Carre," extending on either side of the "Place d'Armes" for eleven squares, 
and back towards the lake for six more. 

In front of the "Place d'Armes," or parade grounds of two hundred years ago, 
was located then the parish church, on the site of the present cathedral. Alongside 
was the Presbytere, and the "corps de garde" and prison. Later, during Spanish 
times, and after the great fire of 1788, were erected the present cathedral, the Cabildo, 
and the old court building on the lower side. 

The St. Louis Cathedral ranks as one of the best-known churches in the United States. 
The site was selected by Bien\'ille for a cathedral when the city was laid out in 1718, 
but it was not until 1724 that the first brick church was built. The church was 
repaired and added to from time to time, and is to-day firm and substantial. Many 
distinguished P'renchmen and Spaniards rest in the crypt. In the rear of the cathedral 
is a small garden in vvhich many duels were fought in colonial days. 

The Pontalba buildings, flanking either side of Jackson Square, were built by 
the Baroness de Pontalba in the early part of the last century, and at the same time 
the Jackson equestrian statue, by Clark Mills, was dedicated. The entrance to the 
old French Market is just off the northeast corner of the square. 

The Louisiana State Museum, created by act of Legislature in 1906, is now 
domiciled in the Cabildo and Presbytere, the most historic buildings in the Mississippi 
Valley. The Cabildo (museum of history) is on the upper side of the cathedral. It 
was erected during the Spanish regime of Governor Corondelet by Don Almonester y 
Roxas. Here the laws were made and here sat the executive officers of the Spanish 
Province, Louisiana. 

In the Sala Capitular (main chamber of the Cabildo) was enacted the scene of 
the actual transfer to the United States of the "Louisiana Purchase," from which 
were formed some fourteen states of the Union, by representatives of Napoleon and 
Thomas Jefferson. The Louisiana State Historical Society holds its deliberations 
in this room. 

The entrance to the Cabildo is quaint; the Spanish wrought-iron door and the 
old marble stairway have welcomed many distinguished visitors. Louis Philippe, 
Aaron Burr, John J. Audubon, Marquis de Lafayette, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, 
Zachary Taylor and many other presidents, foreign potentates and distinguished 
visitors have all helped wear away the much indented stair steps. 

This building contains the famous Lami painting of the Battle of New Orleans. 
The Napoleon death mask in bronze by Bonaparte's physician, Antommarchi, who 
himself pressed the matrix to the Emperor's dead face and later presented it, in this 
room, to the city of New Orleans, is here; also in this room are the famous elephant 
folio volumes of Audubon's "Birds of America," subscribed to by his native State, 
Louisiana, in 1827. 

The building farther along, similar to the Cabildo, was known as the Presbytere, 
or house of the Capuchin Priests. It was built a few years after the Cabildo. In 
later years it was used by the Civil Courts of New Orleans and now it contains the 
exhibits of Natural History and of Agriculture and Industries of Louisiana. The 
building has been restored to its Colonial condition and from an architectural stand- 
point is very interesting. 




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French Opera House 




Typical Old Courtyard 





IN THE FRENCH QUARTER 



To the visitor the French Quarter (Vieux Carre) 
is naturally the most interesting. It is that part cjf 
the city which was developed under the French and 
Spanish regimes, where one may wander in a region 
of narrow streets lined on either side with time-worn, 
old-fashioned, low, stone buildings that are so dis- 
tinctively of the old world as to make it seem improbable that the tourist is in modern 
unromantic America, the land of the sky-scrapers and twentieth century progressiveness. 

In this district are found the greater portion of the historical buildings, sites and 
landmarks. Here are the visual evidences of a past which is easily traceable, step 
by step, through the various epochs in the history of continental United States. 

It is truly a land apart; a pictorial wonder book abounding in an inexhaustible 
supply, innumerable views, traditions and historical narratives. Here are also 
found the beautiful undefaced courtyards, embowered in tropical vegetation a^nd 
flowers, in which are set quaint mansions, interesting antique stores, famous 
restaurants, odd shops presided over by odd people, who nearly all speak French in 
preference to English. 

Nothing is more fascinating th^n a special journey to watch the little characteristics, 
customs and manners of the residents of this transplanted niche from the lands 
across the sea. There the tourist will see, tacked upon the corner-post, the antiquated, 
black-bordered, printed death announcements, the milk vendors, in their odd-looking 
two-wheeled carts, with two big shining nickel milk cans in front. This is the domain 
of the picayune (a nickel) and the quartee (half a nickel) and the lagniappe, or gift 
that each storekeeper must make to each purchaser. These are old Creole words, 
for the patois of the quarter is still very much in evidence. Then, too, there are the 
unique little shops, always a source of entertainment. In them one can find many 
a little novelty, which it is claimed is to be had nowhere else in the country. Here 
lovers of old books, antiques and curios may revel in their fads. 

Closely associated with the traditions and social life of New Orleans is the French 
Opera, and the opera house in which each winter a brilliant season of opera in French 
is given — the Mecca of all society folk and music lovers who are winter tourists to 
the city. 

Among the older buildings in the French Quarter, none are endowed with a greater 
wealth of tradition and mystery than the Old Absinthe House. It was one time the 
headquarters of Jean Lafitte, the "patriot-pirate," of whose valor, prowess and wealth 
volumes have been written. 

Within a few minutes' walk of this pirate's den is to be found the Haunted House, 
made famous through the writings of Geo. W. Cable. Its traditions are also 
fascinating and weird. 

One should not forget in his strolls in this wonder part of the city to watch for 
tunnel-like entrances, as they ofttimes lead to characteristic courtyards, whose plain 
exterior give no hint of the beauties and quaintness hidden behind the outer walls. 
Perhaps through some of the arched ways vistas may be had of one of the well-kept 
courts of some of the old wealthy Creole families, who still keep up their residence 
in this quarter, or it may be a court in a partial state of delapidation, but still fascinat- 
ing in its aspect. 

One should look up, too, in these rambles and see how fond the architects were 
in those days of exterior decoration, for the white cornices under the eaves are usually 
richly carved, and the tiny windows with carved stone or wooden balustrades are 
sunk artistically into the walls across the window space. Indeed there is nothing 
more noteworthy than the windows of the houses. They are round, peaked and 
oddly decorated with lattice work. 




The Old Absinthe House (1823) 





MARDI GRAS IN NEW ORLEANS 



New Orleans' Carnival Season originated in 1827, 
when a number of young gentlemen, some of them 
just returned from finishing a Parisian education, 
organized the first grand street procession of masquer- 
aders. One more splendid still, and still larger in 
numbers, took place on the Mardi Gras of 1837; 
another still more brilliant in 1839. From 1840 to 1845 several of these brilliant 
day displays took place. 

The lapse of years and changes of fortune brought many changes also in the 
social characteristics of New Orleans, and the celebration of Mardi Gras lapsed into 
oblivion. The last, most brilliant and successful of all, delighted and amused the 
town after several years of quiescence and neglect, on Mardi Gras, in 18.52. 

The idea of presenting scenes on floats moving around the streets was inaugurated 
in 1857. 

The Carnival celebration in New Orleans of late years has surpassed, in extent 
and grandeur, all similar events occurring cither in Europe or this country. Beside 
it the carnivals of the Corso of Rome and the canals of Venice are tame affairs, lacking 
the exquisite order and organization with which the Americans have endowed it. 
Though frequently described, it has to be seen to be appreciated, and few enjoy that 
privilege once without thereafter making an annual pilgrimage to the Crescent City 
during its festive season. 

The Tuesday preceding Ash Wednesday, Mardi Gras day, is both the climax 
and end of the Carnival Season. 

On the preceding Thursday, the Knights of Momus give their street parade, 
followed by tableaux and ball. 

On Monday Rex arrives. Coming up the river on his private yacht, he is greeted 
by a naval and military escort, by his knights and retinue, and after parading the 
streets, receives the key of the city. At night the Krewe of Proteus hold their parade 
of brilliantly lighted floats, followed by a magnificent ball and tableaux. 

On Tuesday (Mardi Gras day), early in the morning, the maskers begin to appear 
from all parts of the city. They come on foot, on horseback, and in every conceivable 
sort of conveyance; Dressed in garish costume they congregate for many impromptu 
frolics. There are myriads of gray, green, blue and red devils, monkeys, ghosts and 
ghastly skeletons. Colonial gentlemen pace the streets with masked ladies who 
appear to be from the chorus of some light opera. Silent horsemen — night riders, 
cowboys, jockeys — ride slowly through the streets. Clowns and harlequins make 
merry, and demure ballet girls and Spanish dancers reply tartly to impudent advances. 

The streets are thronged with visitors and tourists, and the day is one of gayety 
always long to be remembered. Undoubtedly this feature of Mardi Gras is the most 
unique entertainment on the continent. The crowds are unusually gay and orderly. 
Good humor abounds, and since Rex holds the keys to the city, the streets belong 
to the maskers and the visitors. 

At high noon the streets are cleared and the King rides through the crowds in 
his Royal Chariot, followed by a long line of beautiful floats. After the Royal Floats 
disappear, the maskers and crowd again take possession of the streets, where the 
revelling continues until the setting of the sun. Rex's Ball is held in the evening. 

The Mystic Krewe of Comus illumine the night with their most beautiful procession 
of floats, followed by a gala ball and tableaux at the old French Opera House. The 
magnificence of these street parades cannot be imagined. For an entire year these 
secret organizations have been planning and working on the floats that appear, which 
number from eighteen to twenty-five for each parade. They are all designed by 
artists who have given years to this work, and put together by craftsmen who have 
had long experience. Year after year they have grown in splendor and magnificence. 

The dates upon which Mardi Gras will fall for the next few years are: 
February 16, 1915, March 7, 1916, February 20, 1917, February 12, 1918, March 4, 
1919, February 17, 1920. 




Headquarters of General Pakenham, Battle of New Orleans, 1815 




St. Roch's Chapel 





HAUNTS OF OLD ROMANCE 



Perhaps the most picturesque shrine in New Orleans 
is St. Roch's chapel. This was erected in 1871 by 
Father Thevis, with his own hands, in fulfillment of 
a vow that if none of hi& parishioners should die during 
___ the epidemic of 1866-67 he would build a chapel 

in thanksgiving to God. Stone by stone the old 
priest built the chapel on a site that he called "Campo Santo" or "Holy Field." 

Soon from all parts of New Orleans pilgrims sought out the chapel, and it became 
a favorite shrine for the suffering and afflicted. In time it acquired the prestige of 
the miracle-working shrines of Europe. Tapers, the offerings of devout pilgrims, 
are always burning before the altar. 

This shrine is surmounted by a statue of St.Roch, and at his side is the good 
dog which fed him miraculously, when he lay afflicted with the plague and abandoned 
in the forests near Bingen, many centuries ago. The chapel is designed in the 
fashion of the old mortuary chapels still extant in German and Hungarian countries. 
Each morning the bell hanging in the quaint belfry is tolled in accordance with the 
Hungarian custom, and every Monday morning mass is offered in the chapel for the 
repose of the souls of all those interred within the consecrated grounds. 

St. Roch's is in that section of the city formerly known as the German Quarter. 
As the German Catholics had no cemetery of their own. Father Thevis converted 
the ground around the chapel into a burial spot, where the children of the Fatherland 
might rest side by side. 

There is a tradition that the young girls of the city pray for husbands at St. Roch's. 
The devout young girl who wishes to marry well will perform a "novena" in the 
orthodox manner — that is, for nine days in succession she will walk barefooted from 
her home to the shrine, bearing a lighted taper. There she will make her prayer to 
St. Joseph, patron of marriage. However, a fleeting glimpse of pink toes through 
the tiniest bit of a slit might be almost as effective as bare feet. 

The traditions of the old Spanish fort embrace the whole history of the foundation 
and settlement of New Orleans. Beginning with the landing of Bienville at the mouth 
of the bayou, which he named St. Jean, and his resting with his wearied followers on 
the high ground on which the remnant of the fort now stands, preparatory to his 
ascent of the bayou, in pursuit of the shortest line between Lake Pontchartrain and 
the Mississippi River, and tracing down through the century and a half which have 
since passed, the most vivid and interesting incidents of that history will be found 
to group around this old fort. 

During the Spanish dominion the fort was kept in good condition and repair, and 
well fortified. It was regarded as the principal protection of the city against any 
sudden assault and raid of the Indians, or of the pirates, who then abounded in the 
Gulf of Mexico. Thus the old fort was always garrisoned and held ready to defend 
the only practicable approach to the city at that time. 

After both Spanish and French dominions had ceased in Louisiana, Andrew Jackson 
and his staff, hurrying from Pensacola and Mobile, found the Spanish fort, with its 
very ancient guns in position and an effective garrison of artillerists, prepared to 
repel an invader far more formidable than the Indians and freebooters of the Spanish 
main. The British cruisers were then engaged in a close survey of all the approaches 
to the city, preparatory to the great expedition which had been long contemplated 
against it, and which a few months subsequently met with so disastrous a conclusion. 

To-day Spanish Fort is maintained by the New Orleans Railway and Light 
Company as a pleasure resort. 

A few miles below the city, reached by rail or roadway, is the scene of the Battle 
of New Orleans, where, on January 8, 1815, General Jackson, with mixed troups 
composed of 2,131 men, met and defeated the British Army of Invasion, led by General 
Pakenham, and composed of 14,450 armed men. The ruins of the house at which 
General Pakenham had his quarters are picturesque and interesting. 




Another Residential View 





THE GARDEN DISTRICT 



From the old-world side of New Orleans the tourist 
naturally gravitates into the far-famed and beautiful 
Garden District, as it is so aptly termed. This is the 
residential portion of the city and its distinct southern 

characteristics are all new to the northern guest. 

In it are located many of the public buildings of note 
and palatial mansions and homes of the New Orleans aristocracy and people of wealth. 
Here set in lovely, velvety lawns, bowercd in a wealth of tropical plants, are homes 
that for elegance, artistic treatment and comfort have few equals on the American 
continent. Wide, cool verandas — or galleries, as they are called in the southern 
vernacular — draped with fragrant yellow jessamine, wistaria, and cloth-of-gold 
rose vines, add to the picturesqueness of the New Orleans residence — a touch of 
beauty which leaves a lasting impression. 

Its principal residence street is St. Charles Avenue, a broad, wide, asphalted 
boulevard, seven miles long, beautifully shaded, lined with estates representing the 
highest type of the architect's art, and the landscape gardener's skill; opening into the 
street are a number of residence parks, where costly houses, surrounded by great 
gardens, are grouped into charming pictures. 

Innumerable walks of a delightful character abound in this section, the charm 
of each being distinct and typical. The floral display in the many beautiful and 
pretentious gardens in this portion of the city is in itself a sight-seeing factor well 
worth many an extended ramble. 

Winter or summer the Garden District is very near to Nature. Roses are to be 
seen blooming there in January, while the riot of color and prodigal abundance 
of flowers, in the warmer months, makes of this side of New Orleans a veritable 
Garden of Paradise. 



FAMOUS HOTELS AND DINING PLAGES 

New Orleans is especially fortunate in the matter of hotel accommodations. All 
of her principal hotels in appointment and service rank with the best to be found 
anywhere and are a never-ending delight to the tourist from other sections of the 
world. 

New Orleans hotels in the past few years have spent several millions of dollars 
in keeping pace with the growing reputation as the most charming winter resort in 
America. Convention after convention has been secured for the city. Few cities 
entertain a greater number of National conventions each year. 

To accommodate this augmentation of visitors the Cosmopolitan, De Soto, 
Grunewald, Alonteleone, St. Charles, and other hotels, have been compelled to make 
additions and improvements that involve large expenditures. 

Accustomed as they are to handling the great influx of tourists that comes with 
the annual carnival season, the guests of the city at this time ranging from 25,000 
to 50,000 persons. New Orleans' hostclries are necessarily well-equipped and qualified 
to handle any gathering that may select the "Crescent City" as a meeting place. 
This country can boast of no more famous or attracti\e dining-places than "The Cave" 
and "The Forest Grill," at The Grunewald, or the beautiful Italian Garden of The 
St. Charles, the Ivory Room of The De Soto, the Bourbon Restaurant of The 
Cosmopolitan, and the beautiful dining rooms of the New IVIonteleone. 

New Orleans is famous for her chefs. Within a stone's throw of her sumptuously 
appointed hotels, offering every comfort, and noted the world over for their cuisines, 
may be found little old restaurants that seem to have been lifted bodily out of the 
nooks and corners of the Old World. Here the Creole dishes vie for favor with thfe 
concoctions of Marseilles, of Genoa, and of Barcelona. Here is the best coffee in 
the world — the delicious "French drip." Here the master chefs of the Old World 
have foregathered because Nouvelle Orleans was a city that warmed the cockles of 
their hearts like the home port over seas. 

13 




Howard Library 




New Orleans Public Library 





BUILDINGS AND PUBLIC PLACES 



As a fitting and vivid background to the old part 
of the city, the modern or twentieth century side is 
representative of the best in the latest architectural 
skill and building construction. Most of the public 
buildings, department stores and ofifice buildings are 
located in this section. It is the connecting link 
between the old French Quarter and residential section or Garden District, and is 
the center of industrial, commercial and civic activity, befitting in size and importance 
this metropolis of the Southland. 

Several of the most consequential office buildings are of the sky-scraper type. 
The department stores, distinctly metropolitan in character, size and allurements, are 
grouped together on Canal Street, the main artery of travel, whose unusual width 
is noted the world over. Many of the banks are housed in artistic and expensive 
structures, and of the modern section of the city the native Orleanian is justly proud. 

Numerous public buildings face on attractive parks, occupying a full city square, 
which adds greatly to the impression which the visitor gets of them. This is 
especially true of the City Hall, and the new Postoffice, both of which face beautiful 
Lafayette Square. The latter building is a marble structure, now in the last stages 
of construction and, when completed, will have cost about $3,000,000. 

Another notable building of recent construction is the new Courthouse, a splendid 
modern, white marble building in the very center of the Old French Quarter, on 
which $2,000,000 was spent. 

New Orleans is rich in libraries and museums. Near the Lee Circle, in which 
stands a handsome bronze statue of General Robert E. Lee, by Boyle, the sculptor, 
is the New Orleans Public Library, an imposing building of gray stone. This building 
and three branch libraries were built from a donation of $27.5,000 made by Andrew 
Carnegie. It contains a collection of 100,000 volumes, 7,000 of which are in foreign 
languages. 

Two buildings of great interest to all lovers of history and historical research are 
the Howard Memorial Library, on Camp and Howard avenues, and the Confederate 
Memorial Hall, on Camp Street. The Howard Memorial Library contains many 
peerless historical works and books of reference, dealing with the colonial, ante-bellum 
and Civil War days, amounting in all to 50,000 volumes, including copies of the 
original works of Audubon and an unrivaled collection of Louisiana maps. 

The Confederate Memorial contains a wealth of historical relics relating to the 
conflict between the North and South. Many of the articles shown have been gathered 
from all parts of the South, and the effects of Jefferson Davis, on exhibition there, 
have a romantic fascination which draws thousands of visitors within its portals 
every year. 

Artistically nestled among the stately trees of City Park, the Delgado Museum 
of Art is one of the show places of the city, where, both inside and out, naught but 
artistic charm meets the eye. It contains a splendid collection of paintings, friezes, 
bronzes and other work of art, by far the most pretentious and valuable in the South. 

In 1748 Don Andres de Almonastcr y Roxas, the wealthiest citizen of Louisiana, 
contributed some $114,000 toward building a hospital. This first hospital, founded by 
the munificence of that generous Spaniard, was the father of the Charity Hosi)ital 
of to-day. 

The original building of the present hospital was erected in 1S32. Many wings 
and additional buildings have since been added, until the buildings and grounds 
to-day cover about four and one-half acres. 

The New Orleans Charity Hospital ranks as one of the best-equipped and most 
efficient institutions of its kind in the country. It is supported by the State and 
city, and receives patients from exerywhere. 



't'.w^ ' wyi-aigswitfwe 




The New Orleans Parks are famed for their 
beauty and historic interest. Within the limits 
of City Park are handsome conservatories, golf 
links and polo field, while rowboats may be 
obtained for a little excursion on the lake. 
Near by a grove of live-oak trees lift their leafy 
heads high in the air, many of them draped in 
moss. This grove is generally regarded as the 
finest in the world. 

Audubon Park is to the residents of the 
American section what City Park is to the 
French Quarter. The park covers 247 acres, and 




DELGADO 




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was originally the plantation of the 
French patriot, Masan, who was condemned 
to imprisonment in Morro Castle for resisting 
the cession of the colony to Spain. 

West End and Spanish Fort, two beautiful 
parks on Lake Ponchartrain, are favorite resorts 
for those who enjoy the water, with its attendant 
sports of yachting, boating and bathing. 

There are a number of smaller parks and 
playgrounds throughout the city. With green- 
swards and spraying fountains they afford 
ample breathing spaces for rich and poor alike. 




17 




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Courthouse 




U. S. Court Building and Postoffice 





NEW ORLEANS — GATEWAY TO 
PANAMA CANAL 



Sometime during the present year the first ship 
will pass through the Panama Canal, marking on its 
eventful voyage the consummation of the most titanic 
engineering feat of all history and the realization of 
the fantastic vision of the Spanish explorer, Balboa, 
who, just four centuries ago, standing on the Pacific ' ' 

shores of the Isthmus, saw in mirage the two great oceans of the earth united in a 
commercial wedlock that should one day bring the peoples of the world into closer 
communion and make more possible the ultimate fulfillment of man's destiny. 

More than any other nation, the United States should share greatly in the trade 
and commerce of this new highroad of the Far East, for it will place her, for the first 
time, in a position to compete with Germany, England and her other European rivals 
for the trade of South America and the Orient; in fact it should give a monopoly on 
all classes of nierchandise on which freight is a consideration. 

Under existing conditions, a large portion of this country's exports to the western 
coast of South America and to the Orient are carried by rail to some Atlantic seaport, 
there by regular ocean carrier to London, Havre, Rotterdam or Hamburg, and from 
there trans-shipped by steamer to its ultimate point of destination. 

The opening of the Panama Canal revolutionizes this condition of affairs, for it 
will mark a saving of 18,000 miles in the traveled highroads of commerce between the 
American Middle West and the Orient, and necessarily must divert a tremendous 
portion of this reciprocal trade to the Gulf of Mexico, well called the "Mediterranean 
of the To-morrow." 

Indeed the to-morrow might be said with all truth to be already here. No seaports 
of the world, indeed, have shown such tremendous trade increase as have the ports 
of the Gulf of Mexico in the past few years. The prow of the tramp steamer, that 
harbinger of the world's trade, is already pointed gulfward, and in a very few years, 
at most, the Gulf of Mexico will be as important to the New World as the Mediter- 
ranean, in the zenith of its power, was to the Old. 

And of all the seaports of the Gulf of Mexico no one should have a greater future 
than New Orleans, the recognized gateway to the Panama Canal. Geographically 
and strategically New Orleans is the Mistress of the Gulf. Situated at the mouth 
of the greatest of the earth's waterways, with its tributary developed section of the 
land, it is the logical link between the Middle West and the Far East. Its harbor, 
embracing some forty-six miles of perfect anchorage, is only a little more than a 
hundred miles from the open seas, yet just far enough away from it to be free from 
any danger of storm or tidal waves, is susceptible to indefinite extension, and well 
able to care for the trade and commerce of centuries to come. 

From the day Bienville, foreseeing the needs of another day, moved the capital 
of Louisiana from Biloxi to New Orleans, the Crescent City has always played an 
important part in the industrial life of the nation. Before the war she was the third 
city in America, and it is fair to assume that but for that epoch-making era in our 
history, she would to-day stand second only to New York, with the possibility of even 
outranking the country's chief metropolis, for the lines of trade would be from north 
to south, instead of east to west, and instead of thousands of miles of steel rail across 
the countless desert, the waterways would first have been developed to a point where 
the mighty Mississippi and its tributaries would have regained their pristine greatness 
as the common carriers of the nation. As it is. New Orleans is already a seaport of 
considerable magnitude, standing second among the great seaports of the United States. 

New Orleans has enjoyed a sustained and healthy growth, attaining her present 
proud position solely as the result of natural development, a statement borne out 
by the fact that in the last decade her tonnage and trade have been increased by 
easy processes from 2,500,000 to 5,500,000, and from $170,000,000 to $250,000,000, 

respectively. 

(Continued on page 29) 



10 




Beauregard Public School 





e:^ 



SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES 



In the matter of education, New Orleans is also 
moving forward. While the population of the city 
showed an increase in the last ten years of only 15 per 
cent., the public school enrollment increased nearly 
50 per cent., and the educational appropriations from 
$600,000 to more than twice that sum. More than 
two million dollars have been spent in the same period in constructing new school 
buildings; buildings which are not only architectural monuments to the city, but 
represent the last word in public school construction. There are now eighty-seven 
schools in New Orleans, with nearly 2,000 teachers, and an enrollment of nearly 
50,000 pupils. There are also three vocation schools and eight institutions of manual 
training. Altogether, New Orleans' public school system is eminently abreast of 
the times. 

Tulane University provides advanced education for more students than any other 
collegiate institution in the South, with the exception of the State University of 
Texas. For the session of 1913-1914 there were enrolled 1,564, exclusive of the students 
in the summer school. 

In its libraries Tulane has about 63,000 books and pamphlets. In addition, 
Tulane enjoys the use of the Howard Library, a scholars' library for special work, 
of the City Library, and of the resources of the Louisiana Historical Society Museum, 
and other museums and collections, the like of which are not to be found in the small 
college town. The Medical College of Tulane University, with a standing of Al 
in the rating of the Council on Medical Education of the American Medical 
Association, has the immense advantage of access to the wards of the great Charity 
Hospital for study. Tulane has other special facilities in the city. No other city 
of the South has an art museum in any way comparable with the Delgado Museum, 
and few have any art collections at all. This museum the Tulane art students use 
continuously. The city also affords other advantages for practical work. Engineering 
students visit shops and new engineering enterprises, students of music attend 
concerts at frequent intervals, and there is also close co-operation between the 
workers of the newspapers and the Tulane teaching of journalism. 

Tulane differs from most southern colleges, not only in the scope of its work 
and in its favorable location, but in its organization. It is the only large university 
in the South unhampered either by denominational control or by politics of any 
sort. Tulane is, in a sense, a State institution. When the original University of 
Louisiana was marged into Tulane University of Louisiana, the new institution was 
made exempt from taxation and gave to Louisiana boys a large number of free 
scholarships. 

The Jesuit High School, located in the historic old college building of the Jesuit 
Fathers in Baronne Street, has been famous for many generations as a seat of learning 
and culture, where, during nearly seventy years, many of the city's most prominent 
professional men and most affluent merchants received their education, and within 
whose walls, in many instances, father, son and grandson have been taught the classics 
and the sciences; that grand old college still echoes back the lusty cheers of youthful 
throats that marked the spot sixty-five years ago. 

The College Department was transferred to Loyola University in September, 1911. 
This change relieved the congested condition of the school. 

The Jesuit priest needs no recommendation in New Orleans. His formation, 
after long years of serious and whole-hearted devotion to the work in hand, gives a 
finish and refinement that, in the daily routine, is gradually diffused and spread till 
those who are in the class become, like their professor, true gentlemen and finished 
scholars. 




On Lake Pontchartrain 





OUTDOORS ALL THE YEAR 



Golf has within the last year or two taken its place 
in New Orleans as the most important and popular of 
the outdoor sports. While the Crescent City has per- 
haps been slow to give the ancient and royal game the 
recognition it has received in many other sections of 
the country, developments that have recently taken 
place insure at least one of the finest courses to be found anywhere, which should prove 
an everlasting attraction to the tourist, as New Orleans is one of the few places where 
such outdoor games can be played with comfort every day in the year. 

Among the older clubs there is the Audubon Golf Club, with an excellent eighteen- 
hole, 5,940-yard course, with 74 par; the Country Club at City Park, with a beautiful 
building and a nine-hole course, and the recently organized Oakland Country Club, 
with a nine-hole course, and exceedingly attractive clubhouse. 

Organization of the New Orleans Country Club was coinpleted in February and 
March, 1914; this promises to be the greatest club in the South for outdoor sports; the 
membership limit of 600 was reached almost immediately after the call was issued; 
each member is a holder of one share of stock and the fund thus created has been 
used in purchasing the old Oakland Driving Park, containing 86 acres of high, well- 
drained land, with a magnificent vista of century-old oaks, fifteen minutes' street car 
ride from the business center of the city, on the New Basin Canal. 

More than $300,000 will be spent on ground, buildings and improvements, which 
will include an eighteen-hole golf course, tennis courts, boat-house for rowing and power- 
boats, swimming pool and dormitories; $100,000 will be spent on the clubhouse. The 
Club will be ready for service January 1, 1915. 

New Orleans is unquestionably without a rival as a playground. All lovers of the 
big outdoors can count on more sunshine and balmy air out of 365 days than 
anywhere else. No snow nor sleet to make slush under foot. There are no biting 
blizzards. No weather is so inclement that the golf or tennis player may not spend a 
large portion of each day in the open. 

Lakes Pontchartrain, Maurepas and Borgne, and the many bayous and canals in 
the immediate vicinity, invite the water-lovers with their sail and motor boats. 
These water courses may be seen dotted with small craft for twelve months in the 
year, and it is seldom that they are driven to cover. The Southern Yacht Club, 
at West End, on Lake Pontchartrain, is the second oldest yacht club in the United 
States, and some of the fastest sailing boats in the world are entered in its annual 
regattas, which are social as well as sporting events. The lake front is dotted with 
smaller boat clubs, for which Bayou St. John and the New Basin canal offer haven. 
In addition to thousands of yachts and power-boats, there are house-boats, many of 
them veritable floating palaces of comfort; and the number which find their way down 
the Mississippi to New Orleans is increasing each year. While their owners enjoy the 
hospitality of the southern metropolis in its festive mood of midwinter, their boats 
are tied along shore, a convenient berth overnight. 

New Orleans has one of the few active and successful polo clubs to be found in the 
country, and the New Orleans Lawn Tennis Club is one of the strongest organizations 
of its kind; every month in the year its courts are filled with duck-clad devotees of 
the racquet. 

The fact that New Orleans is practically surrounded bv water tends to raise the 
temperature in Winter and lower it in Summer. Only twice during the past forty 
years has the temperature risen above 100 degrees, and only three times has it fallen 
below 20 degrees. In short, it is an ideal climate for the man or woman who prefers 
being outdoors. It is fast gaining a reputation as a Summer Resort. Whether the 
northerner is shivering with cold in Winter or sizzling with heat in Summer, New 
Orleans, with her salubrious climate, is proving more and more irresistible. 

23 




A Morning's Hunt 




^J^:]^g^j^^mm^^,^^j^ 








Green Trout (Large-Mouth Bass) 





FINS, FUR AND FEATHERS 



Nowhere in America have the disciples of Nimrod 
greater opportunities for a full enjoyment of the 
pleasures of hunting than are afforded at the very 
threshold of New Orleans. Louisiana is the winter 
home of the blue goose. 

The duck shooting in winter months is unsurpassed 
and unequaled anywhere in the world. All known American specimens aboimd 
in great numbers. 

Quail are plentiful, and the snipe shooting cannot be surpassed. 

There is big game in this section of the country and those who want to chance it 
with bear or wolf will find Bruin and his shaggy brother waiting for him. Deer are 
plentiful and in the open season some fine prizes are bagged. 

Followers in the footsteps of Izaak Walton find, in New Orleans and Louisiana, 
the true land of promise and fulfillment. 

There is only one precept for the visiting angler in New Orleans, "seek and ye 
shall find," and the harvest is of far greater magnitude than a similar effort would 
yield in other localities. Amateur and expert alike, here, have a common ground 
to stand on. The fish are there to be caught. 

One of the most attractive fishing localities, for both visitor and resident alike, 
lies but forty-five minutes from New Orleans by suburban trains — the far-famed 
"Gulf Coast;" here is located the fisherman's domain of plenty. Paralleling the 
shore at various distances are the famous shell keys — the central zone of the fishing 
grounds. These keys are made up of oyster and clam shells washed up from the 
sands and ocean's bed and deposited by the tide and eddying currents. 

These beds are the feeding grounds of the salt-water fish, who get sustenance from 
the marine growths on the shells. Rare and tasty are these morsels, which the finny 
inhabitants of the vast expanses of the waters of the Mexican Gulf gather from the 
encrusted vegetable growths. To avail themselves of these bounties the fish flock 
there in goodly numbers, thus assuring the angler the presence of what he really most 
desires in all the world — - FISH. Here can be caught the lordly tarpon. Next to 
the tarpon the gamiest fish to be caught in these waters is the jackfish. He is an 
all-summer fish, and is game, stubborn and strong. 

Another fish to tempt the angler is the leaping shark. They average from three 
to six feet in length and furnish exciting sport for those who would battle with brain 
and brawn with these game fish. 

The red fish in these waters is very game. They are caught principally in October 
and November. 

Speckled trout are the most plentiful and easiest caught of the salt-water fish. 
They run in great schools from April to November. The far-famed Louisiana sheep- 
head, without a doubt, is as scary, timid and wary as the sheep whose name he 
bears. These fish are very difficult to hook, and a good catch of sheephead is a 
triumph of which any angler may justly be proud. He will take only the choicest 
live bait, his appetite varying with the seasons, and from day to day. This fish is 
caught at its best in Lake Ponchartrain, between the North and South Shore Clubs. 

One of the most desirable fish to tempt the angler's skill in these waters is the 
black fish. Pompano and Spanish mackerel are plentiful in season. 

Among the fresh-water fish which are to be caught in and about New Orleans, 
and there are many species of them to be had, the green trout (large-mouth bass of 
the North) offers the most attractive sport for the visiting angler. Fishing for green 
trout is particularly popular on account of the pleasures attendant in angling along 
beautiful shaded streams, whose scenic grandeurs and picturesqueness cannot be 
found elsewhere in all the world. 

There are also various kinds of perch, the choicest being the goggle-eye and the 
sackalay, a beautiful striped fish; there is also the gray, the black and the red-belly 
perch in endless cjuantities. 

25 




In the Evangeline Country 




An Old Plantation Home 




THE LAND OF THE ACADIANS 



The region where reigns perpetual summer, 

Where through the Golden Coast, and groves of orange 

and citron, 
Sweeps with majestic curve the river, always to the 

eastward." 




" Beautiful is the land, with its prairies and forests of 
fruit trees; 
Under the feet a garden of flowers, and the bluest of 

heavens 
Bending above, and resting its dome on the walls of the 

forest. 
They who dwell there have named it the Eden of 
Louisiana." 
From New Orleans the up-river excursion may be made to Bayou Sara through 
the cane fields and plantations, with negro cabins sprawling in the sunshine, past the 
old town of Plaquemine, the beautiful college town of Convent, in St. James_ Parish, 
and the imposing State Capitol at Baton Rouge, set on terraced hills. It is quite 
worthy of the two days, or perhaps less, that it takes to make the trip. Or one may 
go down the river by water or rail to Buras, in the very heart of the Orange Country. 
No more beautiful or prolific orange groves are to be found in Florida or California 
than those a few miles below New Orleans. Oranges have been grown in the 
New Orleans area for two hundred years, and grapefruit for the past thirty years. 
Green foliage-bordered river banks, studded with golden fruit, make a most attractive 
picture with which to enrapture the eye of the visitor. 

If one is imbued with the spirit of romance and adventure and does not mind 
"roughing it" for a few days, he may continue to Grand Isle, a famous old resort, 
noted for its fine surf bathing. The very atmosphere of Grand Isle, where the sea ever 
sings a dirge-like requiem, and every breeze from the distant Caribbean is freighted 
with the perfume of tropic flowers, suggests the romance of a buried past. Many of 
its inhabitants are descended from Jean Lafittc's pirate crew, and many stirring stories 
are told of the daring forays and raids of the buccaneers. The tourist encounters 
a strange population — a population made up of French, Portuguese, Spanish, Filipinos, 
Chinese and the true type of Creole. Many of these are the grandchildren, or the great 
grandchildren, of Lafitte's picaroons, and there are family traditions which ring with 
the booming of cannon and the clashing of short arms, comparing with the darkest 
legends of mediaeval times. The Lafittcs were long popular heroes in the old city, 
and as they carried letters of marque from the Republic of Carthagena, they were 
considered privateers, with the privilege of preying upon ships flying the English 
flag, by those who defended them. 

There is an old house in Chartres Street, facing the St. Louis Hotel, where, according 
to popular story, Jean and Pierre Lafitte met General Andrew Jackson one cold 
winter night late in 1814, and tendered him their swords for service in the campaign 
that was being planned against the British. 

Another delightful excursion may be made through the Bayou Teche Country 
to Opelousas, and the old town of St. Martinville, where some of the finest sugar 
plantations in the State are to be seen. This dreamy and beautiful bayou is in the 
heart of the "Land of the Acadians." 

"On the banks of the Teche are the towns of St. Maur and St. Martin." 



'Here no hungry winter congeals our blood like the rivers; 
Here no stony ground provokes the wrath of the farmer; 

Smoothly the plowshare runs through the soil, as a keel through the water. 
All the year round the orange groves are in blossom; and grass grows 
More in a single night than a whole Canadian Summer." 




NEW ORLEANS- GATEWAY TO 

PANAMA CANAL— Continued 




New Orleans' foreign trade for 1912 was greater 
than that of any other year in her history, her exports 
and imports aggregating $254,111,700, representing an 
increase of approximately $17,000,000 in exports and 
$15,000,000 in imports, over the calendar year of 1911. 
New Orleans' exports were valued at $170,757,220, 

and her imports at $83,354,480, practically $58,000,000 of the latter being exempt 

from duty. 

New Orleans' trade with Cuba, Porto Rico, Mexico and Central America has grown 
at an extraordinary rate within the last few years, and promises to increase with even 
greater rapidity in the years to come. In 1900 the total trade between these countries 
amounted to less than $13,000,000, while in 1912 this figure had almost reached the 
fifty million mark, an increase of nearly 300 per cent. What this trade will represent 
after a revision of the tariff downward has been effected can only be conjectured. 

But it is not only as a port that New Orleans is moving forward in the march of 
world progress; in every avenue of civic life she is undergoing a metamorphosis that 
promises one day to make her one of the mightiest cities of the world. There have 
been many cities in the last decade that have grown up from the plains themselves, 
magnificent tributes to our American citizenship, but few that have undergone such 
revolutionary changes as has the romantic old city of New Orleans, that under five 
flags has played such a picturesque roie in the history of the New World. 

Ten years ago New Orleans had no sewerage system whatsoever, now she has one 
of the most modern in the country; ten years ago she depended on the mosquito- 
breeding cistern for her water supply, now she has as fine a water plant as can be 
found anywhere in the world; ten years ago she had few paved streets, now she has 
over two hundred miles of paved roadways and is each year extending her activities 
in this direction. 

Her port facilities, too, are being developed at a rapid rate, and on intelligent 
lines, New Orleans' municipally owned docks, warehouses, and terminal facilities 
being greater than those of any other municipally ownecl similar utilities in the 
United States. Since the city, some ten years ago, by legislative action, gained 
control of the port of New Orleans, some five million dollars have been expended in 
construction of steel wharves and sheds, building a belt railroad and in various other 
ways improving the facilities of the port. At the present time there are approximately 
six miles of steel docks, affording berth space for seventy steamers from 400 to 500 
feet in length. There are over three and a half miles of sheds, having approximately 
2,500,000 square feet of floor space. Altogether more than three and a half million 
dollars have been expended on New Orleans' harbor since the Port Commission was 
placed in control. 

Another institution that is doing much to further the development of New Orleans 
is the Belt Railroad, a municipally owned public utility, which acts as a transferring 
agent between the various railroads entering the city, the city manufacturers and 
the public docks. This railroad has a present length of eleven miles, with forty 
industrial spurs, but it is intended ultimately to entirely encircle the city with a 
double line and to provide many more miles of emergency switches. The Belt Railroad 
represents an investment of $500,000 on the part of the city, and is returning an 
annual revenue of $250,000. 

However, this is only a beginning, for those who have the interest of the port 
at heart realize that her trade can be developed only by providing her with the 
facilities to handle an enormous annual commerce economically and expeditiously. 
With this end in view, it is now proposed to build a comprehensive system of 
warehouses, to increase the switching facilities of the port, and to further extend 
the docks on either side of the river 



29 





Banana Wharf 






THE TOURIST'S MECCA 

Although interesting, unique and replete with 
marine, commercial and social greatness, New Orleans' 
principal allurements to the tourist often lies in the city 
being the great American Mecca, from which myriads 
of pilgrimages can be made to satisfy bountifully 
the cravings of each individual seeker's wants, and in infinite variety and plenty. 
Thousands of travelers come to New Orleans annually for the convenience it 
presents in reaching foreign lands and climes. The trip to Panama at present bids 
fair to hold the prestige of popularity with those in whose veins runs the spirit of 
wanderlust — the longing for strange places and sights to sec. The journey is made in 
luxurious, superb steamers, where every comfort of modern steamship travel is afforded. 

ROMANTIC SALT MINING 

One hundred miles from the "Crescent City" lies Week's Island, where, five 
hundred feet beneath the surface, veritable Mammoth Caves, cut from the solid, 
transparent rock, are the great rock-salt mines of Louisiana, prototypes of those 
mystic caverns that inspired the facile pens of those grand romancers, Jules Verne 
and Robert Louis Stevenson. With a visible supply of some billion tons of rock salt 
available, Louisiana can supply the demands of the world for salt, centuries to come. 

MARVELOUS SULPHUR MINES 

Within a comfortable day's journey from the city lie the wonderful Louisiana 
sulphur mines, the largest in the world, where sulphur is brought from the earth 
above 99 per cent, pure; unique in their operations, because not a single workman 
ever goes beneath the surface, every operation being carried on above ground. The 
marvelous method of melting sulphur from the bowels of the earth, by the application 
of hot water and steam, and pumping it to the surface by compressed air, is one of the 
wonderful sights not duplicated anywhere else in the world. 

IN THE OIL FIELDS 

Li northern Louisiana lie the wonderful oil fields of Caddo Parish, and in the 
western section the famous Jennings field. Both afford the searcher after the 
unique and bizarre a wealth of sight-seeing opportunities. 

THE LOGGING CAMP 

Louisiana is the second greatest lumbering State in the United States. Jaunts 
to the hearts of the sweet-scented, life-giving "piney woods," and the cypress forests 
are easy of access to the tourist. The charm of these back-to-nature trips, and the 
thrill of excitement attendant on first-hand glimpses of the logging camps, are refresh- 
ing and inspiring. 

WHERE THE SUGAR CANE GROWS 

A trip to the sugar mills and plantations is a panoramic and kaleidoscopic 
unfolding of man's and Nature's wonders — pleasing, instructive and impressive. 

THE RIVIERA OF AMERICA 

The "Riviera of America," the "Gulf Coast Country," a few hours' journey from 
New Orleans, has been termed. Here the tourists find lavish bounties from out 
the treasure chest of Nature showered upon them in gorgeous scenic vistas, in 
invigorating sea breezes from the broad expanse of rippling waters of the Gulf of 
Mexico, and in the health-giving, life-restoring winds from the celebrated "Ozone 
Belt" which adjoins it. 

The Gulf Coast, strictly speaking, is a narrow strip of country running from 
Chef Menteur, nineteen miles east of New Orleans, to Pascagoula, more than eighty- 
five miles beyond. Here is situated the pleasure-ground and suburban homes of the 
city's wealth and culture. It was in this beautiful place President Woodrow Wilson 
spent his 1913-14 winter vacation. 



31 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



014 497 780 4( 



